Princess: A Sakura Tale
by Guitarman-sama
Summary: Remember Sakura, be strong. Be strong for the both of us. A somewhat angsty story. Slight narusaku. Sakura centric.


**Princess: A Sakura tale**

Greetings fellow fanfiction surfers and authors. This my first fanfic. A little bit of NaruSaku romance. Centers around Sakura. Maybe kind of OOC and notexactly canon. Hope you guys like it! Remember to review!

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She is seven years old.

Like every father does with a girl her age, he absolutely dotes on her. He takes to the park, buys her ice cream and stuffed animals, and spends as much time as he can with her. Each is the others' world.

When Sakura scrapes her knee, Daddy's there to kiss it and make it better, and wipe her tears away, making her laugh with silly faces and stories. He is her protector, her savior.

When he gets home from a mission, his daughter is there to keep the horrors of killing people for a living making him any more warped then he already is. She is his little princess, his Sakura-hime.

One day, Sakura plays on the swings when her father approaches her.

"Daddy's gotta go on another mission in the morning honey."

Of course she begs and pleads with him not to go, and of course he says he has too-it's the Hokage's orders after all. Sakura mentally calls the Hokage a big dumb meanie for taking her daddy away from her-again. But then her father wipes away her tears and gives her a solemn look.

"Remember Sakura, be strong. Be strong for both of us. You can always do-"

"-anything you set your mind to." seven year Sakura finishes, stumbling over the longer words.

Daddy smiles, a big warm smile. "That's my hime." he says, and ruffles her hair. He walks off into the late evening sunset. The will of fire, etched in the skies in lovely pink and purple hues.

A week passes. Sakura expects daddy to be home by the next weekend so they can play hide and seek. But next weekend passes. And so does the next.

By the third weekend, the news is in. Her father is dead.

It was then Sakura knew she wanted to be a ninja.

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She is twelve.

She sweats, looking into the pale, pointed face of another kunoichi, who grins maliciously back at her; the grin of a predator, and Sakura is the prey.

Sakura expected the chunnin exams to be difficult, but she thought the freaky purple haired lady was kidding when she said there would be deaths. Apparently not. Sakura mentally scolds herself for catching herself in such a difficult position. Sasuke-kun and Naruto are out and now she is facing down this killer kunoichi, who has backup of her own.

Fortune is such a bitch.

Suddenly Sakura's hair is in a vice-like grip. The other kunoichi has her pink locks in a deathgrip.

"Well, little girl?" smirks the pale faced girl. "How does it feel to be beaten by a superior warrior?" Sakura bites back a scream of pain as the pale-faced girl painfully jerks her hair. "All that time you spent styling this lovely hair of yours could have gone into training, and then you wouldn't be in this position. I hate stupid bimbos like you!" Her smirk becomes a snarl.

"Kin." grates one of her teammates, a living mummy. "We have come here to test Sasuke-kun, not to play with our food."

"Shut up Dosu." snaps Kin, before turning back to Sakura. "Well? How's it feel,_princess_?" Kin spits the word out as though it were poison and it pierces Sakura's heart, a kunai with the intent to kill.

"I am not WEAK!" Sakura screams before pulling out a kunai of her own and slicing off her pink hair right underneath Kin's grip. She is free.

Soon help arrives in the form of Lee, then Ino-pig's team, then Sasuke-kun. Except he's not a heroic warrior, he's a monster, covered in black marks, glowing with a strange black? purple? aura, and grinning in a way that causes her heart to beat with fear, not passion. She wants to retch when he nearly rips off the spiky haired shinobi's arms.

But instead she rushes forward and embraces him, begging him to stop this senseless violence. Surprisingly enough, he does.

Sakura's shortened hair serves as a reminder to her for the duration of the exams.

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She is sixteen.

Sasuke betrayed them. He ran off to that freak, Orochimaru, because he wanted power. Power to kill his brother so he could avenge his clan. Sakura remembers when Sasuke introduced himself to Kakshi during their academy days. She thought it was so cool that he was an avenger.

It's sure doesn't look that way now.

Sakura also remembers the day when Sasuke left. All too well. She remembers how he ripped out her heart, knocked her out, and left her lying on a bench with only a simple "Thank you." Thank you?! What the hell did that mean?

Naruto sees her sitting there and sighs. Sakura-chan will get a cold if she sits there all by herself in the rain. He takes a moment to admire her. Even though it is storming, she looks like a radiant goddess sitting there. Her clothes stick tightly to her skin, revealing how much more of woman she has become. Her hair flows downward and around her face; like a weeping willow, weeping for Sasuke-teme again.

Sakura feels a hand on her shoulder and look up to see Naruto's face, brow creased with worry, blue eyes sending her a clear message _You need to come inside before you catch cold dammit!_

Her own sea-green eyes send a reply. _I'm fine. Just please leave me alone._

Naruto sits down by her. He knows she needs a shoulder to cry on. Not just because Ero-Sennin told him women mean the opposite of what they say when they're emotional. It's because he knows her far too well.

And eventually, she leans into him, quietly sobbing on his shoulder.

Naruto waits patiently for her to stop crying, then, in a bold move considering they're 'just friends', lifts her tearstained face to his own and gives her a peck on the cheek.

Her eyes widen in surprise. Naruto smiles a crooked smile at her. "I'll bring back Sasuke for you. No matter what. Because..."

_Because it's my nindo? _"Because you're my Sakura-hime. I would rather die than break my word to you." There, he said it. Well sort of. It's not like she'll return his feelings right? Sasuke-teme will always be the one for her, not him. Feeling that his work is done, Naruto gets up and walks away.

Only to be turned around by Sakura. Naruto's eyes widen as Sakura leans in and returns his affections. It's not a passionate lovers kiss, but a small chaste one that lasts for a moment, but feels like a lifetime. A slightly-more-than-just-friends-kiss, if you will.

"Naruto.." she says, then hesitates. _Remember Sakura, be strong. Be strong for the both of us. _"_We'll_ bring him back."

Turning to leave, she whispers a barely perceptible "Thank you." But, as if to prove the existence of a higher being, the small whisper carries over the thunder and pouring rain, right to Naruto's ears. He smiles.

Someday, she would be his princess. His beautiful Sakura-hime.


End file.
